1851] A Letter to Mrs Thorley 139 



good.' When I gave her some water, she said, ' 1 quite 

 thank you ' ; and these, I believe, were the last precious 

 words ever addressed by her dear lips to me. 



" We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace 

 of our old age. She must have known how we loved her. 

 Oh, that she could now know how deeply, how tenderly, we 

 do still and shall ever love her dear joyous face ! Blessings 

 on her !" 



" April 30, 1851." 



In his Autobiography begun in 1876 he wrote: " Tears still 

 sometimes come into my eyes when I think of her sweet 

 ways." 



Her tombstone in the old Abbey church-yard at Malvern 

 bears the following inscription: 



I.H.S. 



ANNE ELIZABETH DARWIN 



BORN MARCH 2, 1841 

 DIED APRIL 23, 1851 



A dear and good child. 



After my mother's death a little packet of memorials 

 of Annie was found, carefully treasured for the 45 years 

 she outlived her child. A half -finished piece of woolwork, 

 a child's desk, a little paper of texts in a child's hand, and 

 two ornamental pocket-books. 



In the same packet there is a copy in my mother's hand- 

 writing of a letter sent by my father to Mrs Thorley, our 

 governess's mother : 



Charles Darwin to Mrs Thorley. 



DEAR MBS THORLEY, DoWN > A P ril 26 



I must beg permission to express to you our deep 

 obligation to your daughter and our most earnest hope that 

 her health may not be injured by her exertions. 



I hope it will not appear presumptuous in me to say 

 that her conduct struck me as throughout quite admirable. 



